Well, Teppy, do you consider other beans veggies? I would say I'm more likely to consider edamame a veggie because (a) it's green and (b) sometimes it's in veggie mixes, but generally I'd think it is in the "legumes" category, more?

You can make a quest to eat more plants?

I know, but things that grow in the ground don't get counted as vegetables, like corn! I have one sanctimonious friend on FB who never EVER missed the opportunity to tell me I'm not eating vegetables if I think corn and carrots are vegetables. (They're "really sugar", according to her.)

Pfft. Next thing she'll tell me Corn Nuts aren't nutritious! Especially the BBQ flavor!

I don't think I understand what would make something that is a plant or part of a plant not qualify as a vegetable.

do you consider other beans veggies?

Green beans/string beans (are they the same???) and lima beans, yes. Are snow peas beans? Peas are legumes, right? But they seem like veggies to me. I think, like you said, it might be the fact they're green.

But then I wouldn't think of chickpeas, black beans, or kidney beans as veggies.

I really just want to be able to count my servings of veggies and know I actually ate veggies and not some impostor that's really a starchy protein/legume/something.

Damn it, back to Corn Nuts.

(I do love Corn Nuts.)

Pffle to your friends, Tep. Corn and carrots are totally vegetable. They're not greens, and they contain more carbs/starches than, say, kale, but they're still vegetables, and better for you than potato chips.

(Honestly, in my quest to eat more vegetables, when I can't figure out is something even qualifies as a vegetable, it makes me want to give up.)

And this is a major part of my issue with these sorts of classifications. Any definition of "vegetable" that's anything other than "food that grows as a plant" will, by necessity, be at least somewhat arbitrary.

Corn is a vegetable, fuck that noise. Corn, potatoes, carrots, all vegetables. What else would they be?

Chocolate is a vegetable.

Pffle to your friends, Tep. Corn and carrots are totally vegetable. They're not greens, and they contain more carbs/starches than, say, kale, but they're still vegetables, and better for you than potato chips.

Awww yeah, back to Corn Nuts!

I know green veggies are highly promoted, and since edamame is green and comes out of a pod, I thought it might be considered a veggie. But then -- definitely not a steak, but protein-y; certainly not broccoli, but veggie-like. Hence my confusion.

I should embrace its multitudes, but I want my food categories to be simple. Corn Nuts, chocolate, wine.

Corn is a vegetable, fuck that noise. Corn, potatoes, carrots, all vegetables. What else would they be?

Plenty of diet plans and lists of food groups classify them as "starches" or "carbs." Which makes no sense at all, because carbs are things that foods contain, not categories of foods, but it's been around and confusing people for close to a century now.